Moose's 10th Birthday

School vacation week has begun! And amazingly enough, each child has one stuffed animal who will celebrate a birthday this week. Today we planned the menus and took care of the shopping. The first birthday- Meryl's moose. She is 10 years old. She chose tuna noodle with peas and chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

The candles were difficult to blow out for a moose, but eventually she got it. Tomorrow is Finley's lamb's birthday. The menu is PB&J with apple wedges and Rainbow Jello. Better menus follow with Avery and Logan's animals.

A moms gotta do what a moms gotta do to get happily through winter vacation!

PS- Please don't ask Moose about the band aids on her antlers. 10 can be an awkward age for moose.

Roses are Red....

Roses are red

Violets are blue.

You are the best mom

I ever have knew.

I guess its the thought that counts!

Heart pancakes for breakfast. Although Finley insists they are mickey ears.

Heart shaped marshmallows in the morning ovaltine.

And the kids came home with tons of candy, plastic junk and pencils from school! Call me crazy but this holiday has gotton out of control. Finley and Meryl had exactly one child in their class make home made cards. Logan had one child. Avery didn't have a single one.

I like this woman's view on the holiday!

*ZWH is intriguing to me but feels like false advertising. No home can be ZW. If you drive a car there is waste. Not just in emissions but in parts like replacement wiper blades, tires, filters, etc. If you eat food and breathe there is waste. I'd like her so much more and not be a 'hater' if she called her home a Low Waste Home. LWH has a nice ring!

Happy Valentine's Day.

Cold?

We check on the chickens several times a day and bring in the eggs regularly. But with the current temps in the negatives the eggs are still freezing faster than I can bring them in. This makes for neat cracks along the eggs and a little wait time before you can use the egg.

Avery likes to play with it as it thaws.

It also means the water heater can't keep up with the cold, so the water is freezing anyway. And yesterday the plastic was too cold and brittle and simply cracked. Ugh.... Who's idea was this chicken project? Off to spend more money on these little birds.

To do list

Perhaps I need to

1. Teach my children to shut the car door and

2. Clean out the car.

Then this might not happen. It kinda stinks to be driving to school and hear your 3 year old say "I smell chicken poop." Pun intended.

I said I never would

But I'm going to.

We are taking a family vacation to (gulp) Disney World with my parents. Honestly, I think it will be fun. (ducking my head in shame.)

We are introducing the bazillion characters to the little girls and trying to watch some of the movies with the older kids. (If they ever get tv privileges back!) But the dilemma it is creating for Meryl is amusing. Meryl just can't decide which character to hug first. She likes Mickey Mouse, but his clothes are yucky. But she doesn't like Minnie Mouse even though she has a beautiful dress. Sigh... what to do, what to do.

Hello? What? This hasn't been updated in a while? Well look at that lovely winter scene on the mantel above. Isn't that sweet? My kids did a nice job. Just don't think about the fact the photo has been there since late fall of 2009. Okay? Okay. Have a nice day now.

If only...

they were always this peaceful! When I left them for nap they were each in their own bed. After they'd been quiet for a while I checked and found this-

When I went to wake Meryl, I found this-